The home was in rough shape—think mold, a hole in the roof, and years of water damage.

Spend what’s needed to upgrade with reliable mechanical systems, roof that doesn’t leak, remediate all mold; interior design modernized; in other words a place that will attract a higher income no hassle tenant.  

So 50% of the roof depreciation would be depreciable.

Adding a 1/2 bath, new roof, central air or other typical improvements will increase the value of the property. 

Eg roof and siding on one, all new paint and countops.

That being said, if you're 23 and you don't own a home, I really do recommend starting with a house hack as you don't need the 25% down capital to get started and you kill 2 birds with one stone by getting a rental and having a roof over your head. 

Paying off the notes, working to pre-emptively make repairs to capex items before they fail or become a major issue think roof, HVAC, and foundation.

The deferral is all on major capital expenditures, roofs, HVAC, Water heaters. 

I'm the VP of a roofing company in South Florida and work with a few good PM companies on a regular basis, a lot of bad ones too.There are good and bad PMs in each of those companies. 

A couple of Roof claims due to storm damage in Tucson, and we had several sub-to deals in Oklahoma when grapefruit size hail decimated a big section of the whole town.